00:00So we're here with Gary again who's kindly agreed to continue sharing his
00:05story and I really think that's important because we're here for another
00:09update and you've got a lot of information now about the procedure
00:13that's coming up which is actually coming up fast. Yeah, only one week away.
00:18Yeah, so you had a couple of appointments yesterday. Yes, I had two appointments
00:23yesterday, one at Varsity Lakes Day Hospital and one at Gold Coast University.
00:28The first one was the pre-admission one which is the main one you have to have
00:33before you can have an operation and went in there. It was probably two hours I was in there for.
00:40Oh really? Yeah and they get to go over it because they they test and check everything.
00:45Like what? What do they check? Oh, your height, weight. They put a heart monitor on all over your chest and
00:52you're on that for a while while they're checking your heart rate and everything to make sure
00:57everything goes all good under anesthetic. They take blood, urine sample, just everything,
01:06your blood pressure, the whole lot. They go right through and then discuss it all now what's
01:11what's happening and stuff in a week's time and give you all the information like a lot of brochures and
01:19that that you can read afterwards and you get the sponges there on that yesterday to actually make
01:27sure the night before the operation and the day of the operation when you shower you've got to use
01:32special sponges which obviously got disinfectant like to make sure you're cleaned for the operation
01:40and then I went to had to rush off to Gold Coast University Hospital then to get to my second
01:47appointment just made it nearly had to nearly run late but made it and I spoke to the nurse a lady
01:54called Debbie there which been at the Gold Coast Hospital for years and she goes over the before and
02:01after so so um what happens on the day when you come in where you're going with the ward they know
02:09everything about that and then after the side effects and how to take care of everything and stuff so
02:15yeah that's she was very informative about everything and filled me in on the whole prostate thing which
02:24same again first not many people do talk about a lot of people have that operation and then go away and you
02:31know come good and most people come out the other side they're healthy and everything but they you
02:37know unless you know someone pretty direct they don't talk about it like you know like a lot of
02:42operations they you know people just go and get things done and don't discuss it with anyone but
02:47i believe yeah men are we are the worst of course but i think it is good to actually talk about it because
02:54it's it's more and more men are getting prostate cancer so if you know more about it you're obviously
03:00going to go to the doctor earlier and you're going to notice sight of things would actually happen
03:07with your body so you might think oh that's not quite right something's going on there so you might
03:12go to the doctor and get checked out but even that's not uh um for sure because you still have no
03:19symptoms absolutely yeah like we said that in one of the other interviews no symptoms whatsoever every
03:24time i go and talk to them like even debbie yesterday um do you have any effects urinating
03:31anything and i say everything normal like there's just nothing where i could say oh yeah there is
03:38something going on there but nothing so it's not a sure thing the only way is to go to the doctor
03:43and get the tested checked out and then go and get um mris or whatever and the the psa yeah yeah
03:52because if they do that and that's high of course there's there's issues so um i didn't realize the
04:00prostate operation was such a big deal like yeah like i i honestly thought the prostate was something
04:06like an appendix or or even getting your tubes tied like like women do i thought it was just a minor thing
04:11yeah yeah and i i never had any idea really like like you say you you just hear the prostate removal
04:19or operation but it's the prostate is quite large because i think debbie had a model yesterday with
04:28with uh where you could pull apart like they'd have to show you when you go and check these things out
04:34and i'm pretty sure it was life-size like and the prostate was quite large like as big as a couple of
04:41eggs or not tennis ball but quite large so that's in the middle of your bladder and
04:51connects on to the back of your penis and when they they take that out yeah there's quite a large gap so
04:59then they've got to join the i'll say tubes join them back together and that's got to heal for a couple
05:05of weeks so that's why you got a catheter in for two weeks like which everyone said through your
05:13urethra like it is yeah it has to heal yeah the whole like when that joins back together that's
05:20it's a quite a process to heal so that's why you got the catheter for a couple of weeks because
05:25she said yesterday everyone just says the catheter is the worst part yeah uncomfortable hurts everything but
05:32the reason for it is to give your wound time to heal because like the catheter goes right up into
05:39the bladder and drains the bladder before it you know gets um infects because if you weren't never
05:46had that catheter in yeah it would get infected or something so oh yeah because you're using the
05:51urethra and your urine's going through there and so yeah and what about muscles do they cut through muscle
05:57as well in removing the prostate yeah oh yeah your nerve systems run lap around the prostate which the
06:06nerves would so you can have an erection and stuff yeah so they get damaged not damaged they they try their
06:13best but that's why after the operation yeah you can't get an erection for and hopefully not too long but
06:24it affects that and all that yes sexual side of things and stuff so yeah so guys do get a lot of
06:32for obvious reasons very concerned about that because i did do that article on prostate cancer
06:37for the australian and yes that's yeah yeah that is a concern but with with therapy and um what did
06:45debbie say yesterday that if you have fit and healthy beforehand yeah that's going to help them
06:49recovery after yeah it the healthier are the better that is and if you have no issues with sexual
06:59erections beforehand that helps their muscles recover a lot quicker so yeah hopefully that's all good and
07:05then down the track we'll be back good again and what about um like you know um the there could be
07:13incontinence as well after yeah that's that's the other thing um because because when they remove the
07:21prostate the prostate the muscles around the prostate um actually stop you like it's like a plug so you
07:32you're walking around that's plugged and you you don't wet yourself yeah but as soon as they remove that
07:38the plug's gone so then you know you've got no control so that's why the earlier you can start
07:47doing pelvic floor exercises which same again you hear women are doing pelvic floor exercise or men
07:55should be doing them too in case you know this happens because the stronger you are in the pelvic
08:02floor well as soon as your your mind says oh you want to go to the toilet or you clench your pelvic floor
08:11and stop yourself from wetting yourself so how interesting that then because you've done some
08:18of the exercises yeah a friend of mine had this operation just on a year ago yeah and when i rang him
08:25up and told him that i was going to have the operation he said one of the main things i can tell you
08:31check out um find out some of someone how to do these exercises it'll be help you so much in advance
08:40because you've already started doing them and when i was there yesterday she told me like explained how
08:46to do them properly and gave me a paper on um doing it so you've i've got to do that exercise
08:55i think it's four times a day and make sure you build up their muscles because the stronger their
09:02muscles are in your pelvic floor the better it'll be the better yeah absolutely so while i'm sitting here
09:09now i'm doing my pelvic floor exercises she said she said you should be able to do them and no one
09:21even knows so you don't have to be holding your breath and stressing you should be able to just
09:27do the exercise and no one know you're doing it so so it was interesting like she explained it really
09:34well that's nice and she's going to be sort of looking out for you yeah yeah yeah after the
09:41operation the you're going to recovery of course then up in the ward and she said that she will be
09:47up and around and i think she it's the lady where it'll be removing the catheter in two weeks time which
09:54i'll be only in hospital for three or four days maybe five depends on what goes on but
09:59obviously have to go back in two weeks time to get it removed which will be a good thing
10:06oh yeah that'll be such a relief yeah pretty restricting well gary me and everyone else who's
10:15been supporting are continuing to support you and just very good luck in the lead up to this now yeah
10:22no it should be all good and we'll come out the other side a new man
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